When IBM replace my drives on maintenance (3592-J1A and LTO4), they
unloaded the VPD from the old drive and downloaded the VPD to the new
drive.  They also place a sticky label indicating the original serial
number.  IBM also has to keep their records correct for field
maintenance.  Our maintenance contracts specifies the SN of all the
drives and what a nightmare it would be if the drives SN changes every
time IBM replaces one.  We just can't change the contracts every time a
SN changes on a drive. 

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 8:31 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Replacing tape drives (or "there has to be a better way")

I need thoughts/suggestions/help on how to deal with SAN attached tape
drive replacements when a library is shared amongst 5-servers.

We just has a drive replaced, therefore giving us a new serial number
(3494ATL - TS1130).  All servers that use these drives/libraries are
RedHat Linux and use very current lin_tape drivers.

Currently, the method we use is to bounce each server so the system
rescans the SAN and gets the new serial number.

In the past, just stopping the TSM server and then restarting the
lin_tape
driver would often be enough. Now with the latest lin_tape drivers, I
don't see the lin_taped daemon running any more.

Yes, I have tried updating the paths on the library manager server and
telling it to autodetect but that didn't help.

There has to be a better way!  If you have a similar configuration, how
do
you handle this scenario?